Car trouble fails to stop the Obama show

Jerusalem | From the moment
Barack Obama
stepped off Air Force One in Tel Aviv, his first presidential visit to Israel has been scripted with imagery and statements showing his support for Israel and its people.

But that hasn’t prevented him from wandering off script.

At his arrival ceremony at Ben Gurion International Airport, Mr Obama was picked up on camera quipping to Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
that a side benefit of the trip is that it was “good to get away from Congress". Mr Obama has been running a charm offensive to persuade Republican legislators to back his deficit- reduction plans.

At the next stop, also on the airport grounds, the President was instructed by an official to follow a thin, painted red line to a structure that housed part of a missile-defence system he was touring. With Mr Netanyahu at his side, Mr Obama joked that the Prime Minister was always talking to him about “red lines".

It was a reference to the differences between the US and Israel over what threshold Iran’s nuclear program would need to cross before military action is required to stop it.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

But other departures from the first day’s script were beyond the President’s control. One of Mr Obama’s armoured presidential limousines broke down, causing a stir in the local press although the President wasn’t in the vehicle at the time.

Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the US Secret Service, issued a statement saying that was why the President travels with multiple vehicles and a mechanic, and Mr Obama wasn’t affected.

Another media flurry, later discounted, involved Israeli media reports that because of agricultural concerns, the Israelis had dug up a magnolia tree Mr Obama brought from the White House and planted on Wednesday with Israeli President
Shimon Peres
in the garden at Mr Peres’s residence.

However, a spokeswoman for Mr Peres, Ayelet Frisch, said that wasn’t correct. Instead, the tree was planted with plastic wrap around its roots until it can be inspected by the Agriculture Ministry, a deal worked out with the White House weeks ago.

“They will come in two or three weeks to see that there’s nothing unhealthy in the roots," the spokeswoman said. “All countries have such rules."